GOT INTO MY DREAM SCHOOL

And so, as it turns out, I got into UC Berkeley, at the Haas School of Business.

It was amazing.

I was sitting in the library at SBCC, on a regular Friday which was about to become one of the most important days of my life. I was sitting at one of the public computers near the small cafe in the back, talking to my sister through my headphones. My sister is about to graduate from university back in Italy, and her thesis has to be typed in English, because she has been studying abroad. However, her English language skills are not all that perfect (not that mine are, either) so she asked me to go over her thesis essay and to translate some sentences from Italian into English. Anyway, there I was-- working on her Google Doc while talking to her through FaceTime, one hour before UC Berkeley was supposed to release their admission decisions. Suddenly and unexpectedly, I heard my phone vibrate directly below my face. On the desk, my phone read: “ iMessage from Isaac Eaves: ACCEPTED HAAS!!!!” I almost had a panic attack! My friend got accepted into Haas! WOW! What about me? 

I did my best to put some words together, confused and undecided between using Italian or English. I got my sister to shut up, and I told her UC Berkeley had just released the admission decisions. My heart was beating so hard. My sister knows how hard I worked in order to deserve acceptance into a prestigious school, and she knows Haas has been my polar-star in the past two years. She got excited, too. I opened a new tab, typed MAP@Berkeley, and logged in. Or, I tried... Only to realized I had forgotten my password! My heart was about to explode! 

Damn technology! We are so used to save our username & password in our devices, but that day I left my laptop at home. Luckily, I remembered that I wrote down all my usernames and password of each university that I have applied to. So I pulled out that information, tried it, and it worked. I was logged in. I skimmed through the page, and I read: “there are new updates regarding your application status. Click here...” 

At that point, I clicked, and my heart had either stopped or it was beating so fast I couldn't tell it was even there. Two seconds later, the page had loaded. I read the first three words: they said: “Dear Federico, Congratulations!...” At that point, I saw virtual balloons and confetti falling from the top of the screen, and I yelled in the middle of the library! I was so excited. I couldn't contain myself, I was moving everywhere but trying to calm down. As soon as my brain started working again five seconds later, I closed all the tabs from the computer, logged out of it, and speed-walked out of the library, where I could finally be myself and act it out! In the meantime, my sister had called my dad and they were all talking to me but I was too excited to listen! I WAS STOKED!

I talked to my dad for a little bit, but the Wi-Fi connection on the bridge was terrible like always. So I decided I would call them back later (we use FaceTime, which requires internet connection). At that point, I called my friend Alessandro, who is a very important person to me because I took much of my inspiration for my success at SBCC from him. He was a student at SBCC, and he transferred to the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley last year. He is older than me, and he is also Italian. I told him I just got accepted into Haas, and he was also so happy! He started telling me about all the amazing things that I will find at Cal, such as big companies hiring on campus from day 1, amazing learning and leadership opportunities, and he also told me about the great connections that he formed by joining a fraternity, specifically pointing out how the previous night he was sitting with some “brothers” drinking a beer (everybody is of age) and they were all talking about super interesting and clever topics, like the economy, like politics, like serious discussion. “At Haas you can be truly inspired to do great things because you are surrounded by great people”— he told me. I. WAS. STOKED. 

Immediately, I jumped on the first bus and got back home. I visited Isaac, went to buy ice-cream with him, and then we celebrated, together with a few other friends who got accepted into Berkeley for different majors. 

I was so happy and very proud of myself. I have worked extremely hard in my first three semesters at SBCC, and I worked hard this semester too. 

Achieving this life milestone is a great satisfaction, but I am aware this is not a finish line— it’s the opposite, it’s a new beginning. And I am so ready!

A presto, 

- Fede